1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal device suitable for being used to display various information and to an electronic apparatus.
2. Related Art
In recent years, a liquid crystal device which adopts a so-called transverse electric field system or IPS (In-Plane Switching) system has come to the attention. In the system, the direction of an electric field applied to liquid crystal is set to the direction substantially parallel to a substrate. Compared with a TN (Twisted Nematic) system or the like, this system is advantageous in that the viewing angle characteristics can be improved.
However, in such a liquid crystal device, a pixel electrode made of a transparent material such as ITO (Indium Tin Oxide) and a common electrode generating a transverse electric field, the transverse electric field being generated between the pixel electrode and the common electrode, are generally provided in the same layer. For this reason, liquid crystal molecules positioned in the upper side of the pixel electrode are not sufficiently driven, thereby reducing transmittance or the like.
Subsequently, in order to solve this problem, a liquid crystal device which adopts a transverse electric field system is recently proposed, the transverse electric field system having a structure where a layer having a common electrode formed thereon is provided in the lower side of a layer having a pixel electrode formed thereon. The system is generally referred to as an FFS (Fringe Field Switching) system.
By such a structure, a transverse electric field can also be applied to liquid crystal molecules positioned in the upper side of the pixel electrode. Therefore, the liquid crystal molecules existing in the above position can be sufficiently driven. As a result, compared with the above-described liquid crystal device which adopts a general transverse electric field system, the liquid crystal device of an FFS-system is advantageous in that the transmittance or the like can be improved.
Examples of the liquid crystal device having such type of construction are described in ‘Nikkei Electronics, Jan. 3, 2005, P20 to P21’, JP-A-2001-330844, and JP-A-2001-330855. In the examples of the liquid crystal device described above, a pixel electrode is formed in a V shape. This structure causes two-directional transverse electric fields to be generated within one pixel, when the liquid crystal is driven. Therefore, two alignment states of liquid crystal can be created within the one pixel, so that a change in the viewing angle can be reduced.